Say you've spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Then, in an absurd, magical twist of fate you find yourself surrounded by wizards, a caged snowy owl, a phoenix-feather wand and jellybeans that come in every flavour, including strawberry, curry, grass and sardine. Not only that, but you discover that you are a wizard yourself! This is exactly ...

J K Rowling's sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone carries on where the original left off. Harry is returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after the summer holidays and, right from the start, things are not straightforward. Unable to board the Hogwarts express, Harry and his friends break all the rules and make their way to the school in a magical flying car. F...

The worry, when faced with the follow-up to books as good as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (both winners of the Nestlé Smarties Prize Gold Award), is that it won't be as good. With J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban any concerns are banished from page one. This, the third in the series, continues where the previous...

Der Band England aus der Reihe Lonely Planet überzeugt nicht durch eine Fülle verführerischer Fotos, sondern wirkt mit seinen 900 kleinbedruckten zweispaltigen Seiten auf den ersten Blick ein wenig abschreckend. Seinen wahren Wert entfaltet der Reiseführer erst vor Ort. Hier erweist er sich als absolut unverzichtbar. Denn im Gegensatz zu manch anderen vergleichbaren Publikationen bietet der...

Bestselling author Nassim Nicholas Taleb continues his exploration of randomness in his fascinating new book, The Black Swan, in which he examines the influence of highly improbable and unpredictable events that have massive impact. Engaging and enlightening, The Black Swan is a book that may change the way you think about the world, a book that Chris Anderson calls, "a delightful romp...

Ich habe mich nach längerem Überlegen doch dazu entschlossen, mir diese Box zuzulegen, weil ich unbedingt alle Bände auf englisch haben wollte und sie einzeln doch ziemlich teuer sind. | Als die Box dann ankam, war ich erstmal begeistert. Sie sieht wirklich toll aus, man hat praktisch alle Bände zusammen und kann sie schön so ins Regal stellen. Als ich sie dann geöffnet habe, wich die anfä...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the long-awaited, heavily hyped fourth instalment of a phenomenally successful series that has captured the imagination of millions of readers, young and old, across the globe. For J K Rowling the pressure is certainly on to continue to come up with thrilling, pacey storylines that allow her hero to mature into a young man without detracting from the magical ...

Das große Finale: Harry Potter Band 7 | Weltweit rätselt die Fangemeinde, wie es mit Harry, Ron und Hermine weitergeht. Zwar hat die Autorin J.K. Rowling bereits den Titel des finalen 7. Bandes der Harry-Potter-Erfolgsserie verraten, doch es bleibt spannend: Laut Rowling müssen mindestens zwei Personen am Ende sterben, und es ist nicht auszuschließen, dass eine davon die Hauptfigur sein könn...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in J.K. Rowling’s bestselling series, picks up shortly after we left Harry at the end of The Order of the Phoenix. Lord Voldemort is acting out in the open, continuing his reign of terror which was temporarily stopped almost 15 years beforehand. Harry is again at the Dursleys, where the events of the previous month continue to weigh on his...

Of all its virtues, the one indispensable aspect of Lonely Planet: Britain--and indeed the whole Lonely Planet Guide series--is the unprejudiced frankness of the opinions that may always be relied upon. Of course, the guides are massively comprehensive and packed with all the hardcore information that any traveller will need but it's the fashion in which the information is dispensed that...